The education secretary said 55 new applications had also been accepted for free schools including the "first fully bilingual state-funded schools", and that there were already eight free schools which had been approved to open next year.

BBC: Free schools statement: Gove announces new wave of schools

But an increasing number, particularly children who've been through US schools, are bilingual.

BBC: Life in Spanglish for California's young Latinos

The city cited increases in crime rates, more gang activity, higher spending on bilingual education at its public schools and on health care, and various other expenses, with no offsetting rise in tax revenues.

ECONOMIST: A powerful precedent is set

Some 20 schools around the country are experimenting in bilingual or immersion techniques.

BBC: Curb on schools' languages innovation

The research is inconclusive, though there has been recent momentum for bilingual education programs such as the one at Coral Way, which has been at it longer than most schools.

NPR: Instruction Of Students Learning English Bleak